Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday May 10th, 2017 with Bernard Stepien
French accordionist Pascal Contet

As an accordionist myself, I never miss an opportunity to discover another accordionist. A couple of weeks ago I came across a CD from Pascal Contet who has one very interesting characteristic. He is a self-proclaimed disciple of the late American accordionist Pauline Oliveros. Thanks to the fact that she got recorded by Ottawa local gong player and Sound Master Johannes Welsch, we even had a chance to catch her live in Ottawa over the years. Pascal Contet has made a blend of Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening style of music where sounds are long and slow moving and the more traditional French accordion playing that includes virtuosity such as Richard Galliano and many others. But forget the influences! Pascal contet’s music is composed of rich elements that he develops intensively. He defines his music as a “accessible modernity”. Tonight, we will survey his 2015 CD Utopian Winds. Oliveros has only a few such disciples. Try to find out if I am one of them on the following Accordion Conspiracy web site: http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~bernard/AccordionConspiracy/accordion_conspiracy.html